This invention relates to a sprayer, particularly a manual atomizer.
A conventional manual sprayer has a liquid tank filled with a liquid and a manual pump having a lever. By manually operating the lever, pressurized air is supplied into the liquid tank, so that the air pressure in the tank increases. When the pressure in the tank has increased sufficiently, an on-off valve for the spray nozzle is opened to spray liquid in the tank through a nozzle under the air pressure in the tank.
As liquid is discharged, the air pressure in the tank decreases. When the air pressure drops below a predetermined level, it is impossible to spray liquid with sufficient momentum any more. Thus, before the air pressure drops below the predetermined level, the manual lever has to be operated again to reincrease the air pressure.
That is to say, not all the air pressure supplied by operating the handle lever at the beginning of use is used for spraying. Thus when the pressure drops below a predetermined value, it is necessary to increase the pressure again by operating the handle lever. After use, the air pressure below this pressure is released into the atmosphere. After all, part of the air pressure fed by operating the handle lever is not used as spraying energy, so that the efficiency of the pump is bad.
An object of the invention is to provide a sprayer which can convert the entire manual energy used to operate the manual pump into energy for spraying of liquid.